In my company, we have OVSD and we would like to change as we are not satisfied with it. We've been looking for SC6.2, Computer Associates, IBM solutions but the prize of these solutions are crazy. It is extortion!
Do you know an Open Source solution that would cover Incident, problem, change and ticketing for the service desk?

i don't know of any open source solutions as i think i've seen that question asked before. Openview is a good tool if it is customized properly for your needs. What about the tool is not working for your organization? Was the expectation that out of the box it would fulfill your needs and you don't want to customize or has it been so customized that you have backed yourself into a corner? Guess ultimate question would be, if you have the current knowledge of the application, necessary admins etc, what would stop you from starting back over and customizing to your needs with the lessons that have been learned? From a cost perspective either way to reengineer your existing tool or buy into a new tool will probably have similar costs. The only difference in costs will be the initial startup cost as you won't need to purchase a new software if you reengineer, but either way you will need to spend monies on retraining, adminsitration staff, new hardware & consultants(if deeemed necessary) and other normal implementation costs.

As previously posted I am getting interested with "INFRA" for a customer. It looks pretty good and rather cheap .Will let you know once we have completed our investigations. So far, I can't make any judgement nor recommendation about it. Just to say it exists, you may want to have a look for yourself._________________JP Gilles

I looked at Infra in July 2005 for Change and Config, and the only problem we had with it was a lack of an integrated Discovery tool.
This meant that all the updating etc would have to be done manually, therefore I rejected it. In all other respects it looked good to go.

I looked at Infra in July 2005 for Change and Config, and the only problem we had with it was a lack of an integrated Discovery tool.
This meant that all the updating etc would have to be done manually, therefore I rejected it. In all other respects it looked good to go.

Regards

Ed

Thanks for the feedback Ed.

From what I have seen so far, Infra still does not have that feature. However it does have "connectors" for some Asset Management Softwares to upload selected data, and it seems you can customize it to adapt it to others. Which is , anyhow, what I prefer: people with asset management usually need much more details than we do need for Configuration management: they can still do their work and "upload" the selected data into the CMDB.

Just as a warning: autodiscovery is a nice feature provided it does not overwrite your "official" data : if there are discrepencies between the "real world" and how it is described in the CMDB I would prefer to be able to notice it. Configuration Management is not (only) about having accurate data, it is also (rather) about CONTROLING changes, and therefore, being able to identify uncontrolled changes. My viewpoint, of course._________________JP Gilles

Just as a warning: autodiscovery is a nice feature provided it does not overwrite your "official" data : if there are discrepencies between the "real world" and how it is described in the CMDB I would prefer to be able to notice it. Configuration Management is not (only) about having accurate data, it is also (rather) about CONTROLING changes, and therefore, being able to identify uncontrolled changes. My viewpoint, of course.

JP

I absolutely agree with your point of view - thanks for the clarification

I truly apologize for the sentence "Configuration Management is not (only) about having accurate data, it is also (rather) about CONTROLING changes..." which might generate some confusion ....

Obviously the process in charge of controling changes is Change Management.

But definitely, Configuration Management is about Controling the CMDB. Where Change Management ensures that all changes in the CMDB go through an approved change process , Configuration Management must ensures that ONLY approved changes go into the CMDB.
(as a matter of fact controling -auditing- the CMDB is a designated activity of the Conf.Mnagement process).